Farmers suspend sowing in K'taka

Mysore, July 27 (UNI) Due to long dry spell, the agricultural activities have suffered in the Mysore region and farmers in many taluks in Karnataka have reportedly suspended sowing.

The agriculture department sources told UNI that the sowing has not been severeley affected, however, admitted that agriculture activities have slowed down owing to the dry spell this year.

Farmers have apparently put off sowing in ran dependent land, anticipating rains in the coming days.

Farmers were perturbed over the dry spell in the neighbouring Wayanad in Kerala, the prime catchment area for the Kabini reservoir in the H D Kote taluk in Mysore district, which irrigates over 1.2 lakh acres of land.

''Kabini is the first reservoir in the state to reach the full reservoir level when the southwest monsoon hits Kerala first. With Wayanand being the catchment area, the dam usually reaches its maximum level in June itself. But this year, the situation was not the same following failure of rains in June. The water level in Kabini is around 2,275 feet as against the maximum level of 2,284 feet,'' the sources said.

Irrigation in the Mysore district was primarly depended on Kabini, Nugu and Harangi dams.

The Mysore and other districts in the Cauvery basin had an advantage over others since these districts were getting water from four major dams, Kabihni, Harangi in Kodagu, Hemavarthy in Hassan district and Krishnaraja Sagar dam in Mandya district.